The Finals +++ The Finals +++ The Finals

Finally the time had come: 

The Finals of the Global Entrepreneurship Summer School took place yesterday!

Our 35 outstanding participants and the whole GESS Team were waiting for it for a long time. The teams worked very hard during the last 8 days, went through ups and downs and never gave up. They created amazing innovations, presented great pitches and showed their potential to the jury and the public.
  

The 35 GESS Participants 2014

Jens Bosse Parra, moderator of the event and dressed in traditional Bavarian 'Lederhosen' welcomed around 200 guests in the Falk F. Strascheg Hörsaal at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.
The official opening was made by Klaus Sailer the host of the evening. The other members of the board 4entrepreneurship Helmut Schönenberger, Bernhard Katzy and Andy Goldstein spoke to the audience as well. They praised the teams for their intensive work and discipline during the week and emphasized that the commitment does not end with the finals but lasts beyond. 

Afterwards Dr. Bruno Gross, Managing Director of the Goethe-Institut gave impulses on best practice examples they are supporting all around the world. He pronounced as well the prize for the winning team: An invitation to the Social-Culture Entrepreneurship Startup Weekend in Thessaloniki in January.

Kevin and Kelvin pitching for Team 'Wastestage'

And then it was time for the pitches. 
Team 'Waststage' was first. They understand themselves as a world wide network of entrepreneurs aiming to scale up transformative ideas to solve the global societal problem of waste. 
The second team was 'SmartLink'. They invented a SMS system that improves the efficient allocation of food remains in India so that food waste is reduced.
Third was 'Journeybox'. This team developed a shoe box that can be folded together and resend via a deposit system.

After a short break we heard four more presentations:

The first team after the break was 'Binee'. They created a sexy waste separation system with gratifications. 
Next was 'SocialFuel'. This team concentrated on turning plastic into fuel.
The second last team 'Wasteout' developed a business model on the recycling of human waste. 
Last but not least 'Freshr' presented an integrated food management system.

The jury 2014 was build up by the mentioned Klaus Sailer, Helmut Schönenberger, Bernhard Katzy and Andy Golstein as well as Krisztina Tora from UnLtd London, Dorothee Vogt from Bonventure and Dr. Brendan Galbraith from the University of Ulster. While the jury discussed about the winner of this year's Global Entrepreneurship Summer School, David Baumgartner, founder and CEO of dean&david gave a motiving speech on his successfull business story.

Then the jury came back, gave feedback to all the project teams and finally announced:

Winner Team of 2014: SmartLink

And the winner is ... 'SmartLink'! Congratulations to Neha, Oreoluwa, Luka, Marvin and Jonas!

After the finals the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie and the entrepreneurship centers invited all guests to a Get-together with a great buffet, drinks and the opportunity to talk to the teams. 

The GESS Team and the participants are happy now that the work is done but also sad because most of the participants are going back to home countries today. To celebrate the successful end of the summer school we met up one last time for dancing and partying before the Global Entrepreneurship Summer School participants will be splitted up again over the globe.

Thanks to everyone who followed our blog and supported the GESS! It was a great time and we are looking forward to next year. The topic of 2015 will be 'Youth Unemployment'. 

See you again next year!

                                                              And the winner is....